Talking doll

ABSTRACT

A doll having a body and a speech mechanism within the body, wherein the speech mechanism plays a first emotional speech phrase upon the activation of a switch at a first location within the doll&#39;s body and a second emotional speech phrase at a second location within the doll&#39;s body.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to talking dolls of the type having internalprerecorded speech mechanisms and more particularly, to a talking dollof the type having internal prerecorded or recordable speech mechanisms,wherein the doll has a first speech pattern when activated by pressingon a first part of the doll's body and a second speech pattern activatedby pressing on a second part of the doll's body.

Dolls have been developed for entertainment in which various speechphrases occur upon activation of a switch mechanism. Such speech phraseshave included sayings that have been solely complimentary or are suchthat they reflect positive attitudes. While such dolls provideentertainment, until now, no such dolls have been developed forentertainment purposes such that they have speech phrases that arecomplimentary when activated in one manner and derogatory when activatedin another manner.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is desirable to provide a talking doll of the type having an internalprerecorded or recordable speech mechanism that plays a first emotionalspeech phrase upon the activation of a switch at a first location withinthe doll's body and a second emotional speech phrase at a secondlocation within the doll's body.

It is also desirable to provide a talking doll of the type having aninternal prerecorded or recordable speech mechanism that plays severaldifferent speech phrases for the same activation place within the doll'sbody.

It is similarly desirable to provide a talking doll of the type havingan internal prerecorded or recordable speech mechanism that allows thespeech phrases to be randomly accessed.

It is desirable to provide a talking doll of the type having an internalprerecorded or recordable speech mechanism that plays a first derogatoryemotional speech phrase upon the activation of a switch at a firstlocation within the doll's body and a second complimentary emotionalspeech phrase at a second location within the doll's body.

It is desirable to provide a talking doll of the type having an internalprerecorded or recordable speech mechanism that plays a sexual or otherresponse sound upon the activation of a switch positioned at aparticular location within the body of the doll.

It is desirable to provide a talking doll of the type having an internalprerecorded or recordable speech mechanism that plays a sexual or otherresponse sound upon the activation of a switch positioned at aparticular location within the body of the doll and of a timingmechanism that activates the sound mechanism after a certain amount oftime.

It is desirable to provide a talking doll of the type having an internalprerecorded or recordable speech mechanism that plays a sexual responsesound upon the activation of a series of switches positioned atparticular locations within the body of the doll.

It is desirable to provide a talking doll of the type having an internalprerecorded or recordable speech mechanism that plays a sexual or otherresponse sound upon the activation of a switch positioned at aparticular location within the body of the doll and wherein said sexualor other response increases in intensity upon continued activation ofsaid switch.

These and other objects of the invention are accomplished by providing atalking doll having within it a speech mechanism comprising amicroprocessor speech synthesizer computer chip that contains thereonseveral prerecorded or recordable speech phrases and which is activatedby electro-mechanical speech-activating switches that are placed underthe doll's outer skin at two different locations or contact points, onthe doll's body. Each speech-activating switch activates the speech chipto play a different one of the several prerecorded or recordable speechphrases for one of two different emotions, one being complimentary andone being derogatory, through a speaker(s) mounted within the doll'sbody. The talking doll is structured so that activation of aspeech-activating switch on one area of the doll will immediately turnthe power on and play the desired speech phrase on the portion of thechip associated with the area of the doll's body.

The doll is further equipped with two characteristic types ofprerecorded or recordable speech, a first characteristic speech includesderogatory speech when activated by an activation switch located in aneutral body part, such as a hand, arm, and the like, and a secondcharacteristic speech including complimentary speech when activated byan activation switch located in a private body part, such as the groin,crotch, genital, or buttock area.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING

To provide a more complete understanding of the present invention andfurther features and advantages thereof, reference is now made to thefollowing description taken in conjunction with the accompanyingdrawings, in which:

FIG. 1 shows a perspective view of a talking doll of the presentinvention; and

FIG. 2 shows a fragmentary front elevational view of the doll of FIG. 1with the outer skin and coverings removed.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to talking dolls and more particularly, toa talking doll for entertainment purposes that speaks a derogatoryphrase when activated by a switch located in a hand or arm or otherregion of the doll's body and a complimentary phrase when activated by aswitch located in the groin, crotch, genital, or buttock portion (hereinreferred to as “private portion”) of the doll's body. The applicationhowever, is not intended to be limited by the specific terms soselected, and it is to be understood that each specific term includesall technical equivalents that operate in a similar manner to accomplisha similar purpose. It should be understood that as used herein the term“speech” includes a single word, a plurality of words, a sound (such asa burp or other body sounds), a plurality of sounds, and any combinationthereof.

In an embodiment of the present invention, illustrated in FIG. 1, thedoll 100 is in the form of a human male having a body 102 having a chestportion 104 and head 106, a right arm 108 and hand 110, a left arm 112and hand 114, a right leg 116 and foot 118, a left leg 120 and foot 122,and a private portion 124. Not shown in FIG. 1 are the speech mechanismparts of the present invention, e.g., the electro-mechanically activatedswitches that activate the speech mechanisms, the microprocessor thatruns the speech programs and stores the speech data, the mechanism thatreproduces the speech data signals and feeds them to the speaker, andthe speaker mechanism that plays the speech phrases. It should beunderstood that a microphone for recording speech and an amplifier toimprove sound quality may also be included in the speech mechanism.

The internal mechanisms of the doll 100 may be covered by any of theconventional materials used for stuffing and covering dolls. Preferably,the outer surfaces or “skin” of the head 106, hands 110, 114 and feet118, 122 should be made from a suitable, flesh-colored flexiblepolymeric material, such as polyurethane or polyvinyl polymer orco-polymer, and the body 102, arms 108, 112 and legs 116,120 shouldpreferably be stuffed with a non-flammable, nontoxic, polymericfiber-fill material, such as a spun or cut polycarbonate. The materialthat comprises the outer surface or “skin” of head 106 of doll 100 ismade of a flesh-colored, semi-rigid polymeric material. It should beunderstood that skin may also be of a softer, fabric or fabric-like orrubber-like material.

Within various parts of the doll 100 are electro-mechanically activatedspeech activating switches that are set beneath the doll's skin. FIG. 2shows a cutaway version of FIG. 1 revealing the placement of theelectro-mechanical speech activating switches and the speech mechanisms.The speech-activating switch 126 that activate the playing of derogatoryspeech phrases are set at various places in the right hand 110 or lefthand 114, as shown in FIG. 2. The speech-activating switch 128 forplaying complimentary speech phrases is situated within the privateportion 124 of the body 102.

Each of the speech-activating switches may be one of manyelectro-mechanical switches in the art of electrical switches but ispreferably of the push-button momentary-type switch. Usingmomentary-type switches for speech activation enables each switch to beactivated by only momentary pressure and then immediately deactivated,without requiring sustained pressure on the switch. Each of thespeech-activating switches is connected through a wire 130 to anassembly 132 having the following functions: microcontroller, speechsynthesizer, speech ROM, program ROM, data RAM, and oscillator. Thisassembly, which is capable of allowing the doll to operate, is mountedon a printed electronic circuit board 134. The assembly preferablycomprises a single integrated chip (IC), and any commercially availableIC having the aforementioned functions could be used. An example of sucha commercially available IC is a ISD5216 speech chip/microprocessormanufactured by Winbond Electronics Corporation, which can becustom-manufactured with digitized prerecorded speech data and programsoftware data in ROM (read-only memory). The microprocessor is alsoequipped with a memory buffer for temporary storage of the desiredsequence of phrases during programming operation. It should beunderstood that the doll may also contain a microphone and chipmechanism allowing recording of speech sounds and subsequent playback ofsaid sounds after activation of the appropriate activation switch. Inanother preferred embodiment of the invention, the doll may include aconventions USB type input mechanism effective for recording sounds.

As shown in FIG. 2, the assembly 132 is set within the body 102 of doll100 and is surrounded with stuffing (not shown) to prevent damage to theassembly 132 by jarring or other violent motions and to insulate theassembly 132 from extreme temperatures. Electrically mounted to theassembly 132 and facing toward the front of the doll 100 is a smallspeaker 136, such as those typically used in toy applications. A batterypack 138 containing places for one or more batteries for powering thedoll 100 is removably mounted within the doll 100. The doll 100 is alsoprovided with a door or removable panel 140 for user access to thebattery pack 138. Also, as discussed, electro-mechanicalspeech-activating switch 126 is mounted within the arm 108, 112 or hand110, 114 of the doll 100 for playing derogatory speech phrases. Inaddition, because the electronic “power up” and automatic shut-offfeatures, discussed below, enable the doll 100 and its internalcircuitry to be normally powered-off and to be powered-on only from thetime a speech-activating switch 126, 128 is pressed until the time theassociated speech has completed playing, the physical movement of aswitch from the “on” position to the “off” position and back again isrendered unnecessary. The speech chip within the assembly 132 comprisesprerecorded speech phrases that have been digitized, processed andsynthesized. Preferably, the speech phrases are arranged in pairs, eachpair being associated with either the hand or crotch area switches, 126,128, respectively, as discussed above. For example, when the hand switch126 is activated, a derogatory phrase is played. When the crotch switch128 is then activated, a related complimentary phrase is then played.

In another preferred embodiment of the invention, the internalprerecorded or recordable speech mechanism of the assembly operates toplay a sexual response sound upon the activation of a switch positionedat a particular location within the body of the doll. In this way whenthe appropriate activation switch is activated by the user the dollplays a sexual or other responsive sound. In another embodiment, thespeech mechanism includes a timer or counter such that the sexual orother responsive sound is made after the activation switch has beenactivated for a certain period of time or after a certain number ofactivations of the switch.

In another preferred embodiment of the invention, the speech mechanismis activated to play a sexual or other response sound upon theactivation of a series of switches positioned at particular locationswithin the body of the doll.

In another preferred embodiment of the invention, the speech mechanismoperates to play a sexual or other response sound upon the activation ofa switch positioned at a particular location within the body of the dolland increases in intensity upon continued activation of the switch.

Although the foregoing invention has been described in some detail forpurposes of clarity of understandings, it will be apparent that certainchanges and modifications may be practiced within the scope of theappended claims. Accordingly, it should be understood that the presentdisclosure is to be considered as exemplary of the principals of theinvention and is not intended to limit the invention to the embodimentsillustrated and the invention is not to be limited to the details givenherein, but may be modified within the scope and equivalents of thesubject specification.

1. A doll comprising: a body; an internal speech mechanism that plays afirst emotional speech phrase upon the activation of a switch at a firstlocation within said body and a second emotional speech phrase at asecond location within said body.
 2. The doll of claim 1 wherein saidspeech mechanism is effective for playing more than one speech phraseactivated by the same activation switch within said body.
 3. The doll ofclaim 1 wherein said speech mechanism that allows the speech phrases tobe randomly accessed.
 4. A doll comprising: an internal speech mechanismwithin said body, wherein said speech mechanism is operates to play afirst derogatory emotional speech phrase upon the activation of a switchat a first location within the said body and a second complimentaryemotional speech phrase at a second location within said body.
 5. Thedoll of claim 4 wherein said speech mechanism operates to play a sexualresponse upon the activation of said switch positioned at said firstlocation within said body.
 6. The doll of claim 4 wherein said speechmechanism operates to play a sexual response upon the activation of saidswitch positioned at said first location within said body and includes atiming mechanism that activates said sound mechanism after a certainamount of time.
 7. The doll comprising a body; a speech mechanism withinsaid body; and a series of switches positioned at particular locationswithin said body and wherein said speech mechanism operates to play asexual response upon the activation of said series of switches.
 8. Thedoll of claim 7 wherein said speech mechanism operates to play a sexualresponse upon the activation of one of said switches and wherein saidsexual response increases in intensity upon continued activation of saidswitch.